I got some insight into that question recently when I joined Ruth Cummings and Jaimie Mayer Phinney, both trustees of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, at the Council on Foundations’ Family Philanthropy Conference. Ruth and Jaimie spoke on a panel that was billed as a “conversation on how cultures, nationalities, and communities are making a difference.” The other panelists included a woman who had set up her foundation after winning the lottery and former NBA superstar Alonzo Mourning and his wife.

The panel was fascinating, and I was inspired to hear our trustees powerfully tell the story of Nathan Cummings, the philosophy behind the foundation, and our unusual self-identity as an institution guided by Jewish values to create change far beyond the confines of our own community. But it was Jaimie’s response when asked what NCF saw as philanthropy’s most important goal that got me thinking about the Knicks’ out-of-nowhere point guard phenomenon.
“I think we really need to take risks. The reason why nonprofits aren’t taking risks is because they are worried about losing funding. And the reason why philanthropists aren’t taking risks is because we are worried about being good stewards to the money.”

Jaimie closed her response by noting that while the philanthropic community needs to invest in superstars like Mourning, we also need to spend some time taking risks on overlooked players like Lin. Click here to watch her full response.

This is a provocative question. Most of us, as individuals and institutions, have at one point achieved a breakthrough because we were willing to take a risk. But it is easy for even the most adventurous among us to become satisfied betting on sure things. And when we do, game changers can be overlooked.

Nonprofits aren’t basketball teams. We don’t have thousands of well-paid scouts meeting with new talent to make sure the best and brightest join our movements. There is no Moneyball-esque data analysis being done to help us maximize our staff ROI. Even our most famous nonprofit leaders are obscure when compared to world-class athletes or entertainers.

And yet despite the differences, we DO invest, ultimately, in people. Like Dan Swinney, a 67-year-old former machinist and union organizer who is a national leader in the effort to make the U.S. a global contender in sustainable, advanced manufacturing. Or Jason DaSilva, who was diagnosed with Primary-progressive Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 26. He and his partner, Alice Cook, are developing AXSmap (pronounced “access map”), an innovative way to find and talk about accessible places, as a companion piece to his documentary When I Walk.

If we are attached to stereotypes about what makes for effective leaders—pedigree, charisma, gender, race—we will undoubtedly overlook people who can make the difference between failure and success.

Thanks to Jaimie, and Jeremy Lin, I will look twice when unusual opportunities present themselves. I hope you will too.

Simon Greer became the President and CEO of the Nathan Cummings Foundation in January 2012 after a distinguished seven-year tenure at Progressive Jewish Alliance and Jewish Funds for Justice (PJA & JFSJ). During his time at PJA & JFSJ, Mr. Greer led the organization through a period of dramatic institutional growth, including three mergers, high-profile campaigns, programmatic innovation, and increased philanthropic impact. Under his leadership, PJA & JFSJ developed the largest domestic Jewish service learning program in the United States, started an array of cutting-edge leadership training programs, forged successful funder collaboratives, and moved millions of dollars in low-interest loans to help businesses and homeowners revive the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

In 2011, Mr. Greer was named to the Forward 50, an annual list of the country’s most influential Jews, in part for the role he played in convincing Fox News to cancel Glenn Beck’s popular daily show. Mr. Greer’s attention to organizational culture, change management, and leadership development helped enable the organization’s growth and emergence as a strong advocate for a fair, just, and compassionate America. Mr. Greer has worked as a labor and community organizer and social change leader for 20 years. He founded Jews United for Justice, an urban social change group in Washington, DC, and served as the Executive Director for New York Jobs with Justice.

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2 Responses to “When LINsanity Comes to Philanthropy”

This is a great point and it’s nice to see philanthropy relate to popular culture given how wonky and isolated it can be. To take the metaphor a little further, the reason the Jeremy Lin’s of the nonprofit sector often fail to get noticed is that they don’t have the numbers of the more established “players”. This is one of the most unfortunate risks of an over-emphasis on quantitative metrics: we stop trusting good instincts to invest in talented, up-and-coming leaders.

Reblogged this on Philanthropy Matters and commented:
Interesting link between the philosophy of taking risks on unproven players (like current NBA New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin) and the importance of taking risks in philanthropy – both as donors and as non-profit organizations reliant upon philanthropic dollars.

This quote from Nathan Cummings Foundation trustee Jaimie Mayer Phinney stuck with me: “I think we really need to take risks. The reason why nonprofits aren’t taking risks is because they are worried about losing funding. And the reason why philanthropists aren’t taking risks is because we are worried about being good stewards to the money.”

I’ve spoken and written in the past on the importance of thinking entrepreneurially – even more so in tough times. Organizations that retreat and become more conservative in down times will not be well-positioned to benefit from good times, and in fact run the risk of alienating their donors and constituents.